Citizenship and Immigration Committee on Feb. 15th, 2022

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for your question.

It depends on the category in which you're applying for permanent residency. Processing times vary from category to category. For example, processing times are different in the economic immigrant category than they are for the family class.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

According to my numbers, the average time is 28 months, compared to much shorter processing times in the rest of Canada.

So, Quebec sends you a long list of immigrants we're ready to receive, and it's radio silence in your department.

Do you think that makes sense?

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for your question.

I'm a little surprised at the member's question, because last year we admitted over 50,000 permanent residents to Quebec, which was very close to Quebec's immigration target.

As you know, immigration is a shared responsibility with Quebec and the provinces set their own immigration targets. Canada issues the permits to meet that target.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

If that's true, how could you possibly not have met the 2020 target on your end? You were 12,000 cases short.

[Daniel Mills]

I can't confirm the 12,000 cases, but I don't know where that number came from.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

I'm confirming it for you.

[Daniel Mills]

We admitted 50,000 permanent residents to Quebec and the provincial immigration target was around 53,000, if memory serves. Therefore, we missed the target by about 1,500 applications. I can't confirm the 12,000.

I will be happy to get back to the members if we get more information.

[Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, Bloc, Lac-Saint-Jean, QC]

Yes, because we really don't have the same numbers. For 2020, we're short 12,000 cases. You should get back to us because we don't want to mislead the public.

I'd like to come back to the question you did not have time to answer.

Would you like to see Global Affairs Canada put people on the ground in Afghanistan to assist—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting you, Mr. Brunelle-Duceppe. Your time is up. We will come back to you later.

Now we will proceed to Ms. Kwan.

Ms. Kwan, you will have two and a half minutes. Please proceed.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you.

Just to follow up on the last question I was asking, I wonder if officials can table their response to the committee for me, so that we can receive that information by the end of the month.

I'd like to ask another question of the officials.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made it loud and clear just how much Canada relies on TFWs to keep our economy moving. The pandemic put an even bigger spotlight on the contributions of TFWs and the treatment they received while they were here. I'm dismayed at the Auditor General's report, which found that the department assessed almost all employers as compliant with COVID-19 regulations “despite having little or no evidence to demonstrate this.”

I'd like the officials to advise how this is even possible. What is being done to address this shameful situation?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Madam Chair, I'd first like to acknowledge the request for a written response. It was with respect to francophone immigration and the target, so we have noted that.

With respect to temporary foreign workers, indeed, temporary foreign workers coming to Canada over the course of the pandemic underlines their importance, and the department is very mindful of some of the vulnerable situations. That is one of the reasons why access to the open work permit has become so important.

With respect to this specific question, that is actually under Minister Qualtrough's purview to do the enforcement and oversight of the temporary foreign worker regulations, so that question would be best placed to Minister Qualtrough and her officials.

[Jenny Kwan, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

All right.

For temporary residents and the TR to PR program pathway system, there are individuals who've been rejected on the basis of a departmental error. A group of 60 individuals, despite applying through the English stream, were rejected based on the French-language requirements.

I understand that errors occur. What is being done to address this situation for those people who have been impacted?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Madam Chair, thank you for the question.

With respect to the specific situation, I am going to—

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

I'm sorry for interrupting, Ms. Campbell. The time is up for Ms. Kwan.

We will now proceed to Mr. Redekopp.

Mr. Redekopp, you will have five minutes for your round of questioning. Please proceed.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Mr. Mills, I want to talk about specifics in terms of wait times. I asked the minister about Madame Kaur in my riding, who has received her permanent residency but is at 66 days overdue, and counting, for her card. This is a common problem.

When can we expect PR cards to be on time?

[Daniel Mills]

Thank you for your question.

With respect to permanent residency cards, we're doing a tremendous amount of work right now to dramatically reduce the number of applications that need to be processed over the next few months.

As the Minister mentioned, we've made a firm commitment to significantly reduce processing times for permanent residency cards.

I don't have the information with me as to the specific date on which we will reach the 61‑day processing time. However, as we mentioned earlier, we expect to be back to normal by the end of the year, and we continue to work hard to significantly reduce the number of applications to be processed.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

So the answer is that you will get down to a certain number of days, which you can't define, and a certain number of months, which you're not sure of. That's not terribly helpful.

Following Ms. Kwan and her request, I have one as well on behalf of the committee.

You can provide this afterwards. We're having trouble getting answers looking forward, so I'm going to look backwards, which should be much easier for you. Starting in 2015-16, please provide the committee with the breakdown by fiscal year of the number of permanent resident cards that were delivered late, the average time they were delivered late, the reasons they were delivered late, and what steps the department is taking to meet its expected delivery times. I'll give you until March 10 to provide that information to the committee. That would be appreciated.

I want to switch gears to talk about compassion, specifically the lack of compassion my colleagues and myself have seen when dealing with people. “Mechanical”, “inhuman”, “emotionless”, “insensitive”, “callous” and “unwilling to listen” are the words that I hear as an MP when people tell me about their loved ones who can't enter Canada because of immigration cases. Many decisions are based on simple paperwork errors or things that were forgotten. There is a ruthless application of the rules and denials.

How do you ensure that there is some level of compassion in your department? Is there any sensitivity training that you put your officials through, Mr. Mills?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I will turn to Daniel Mills to further respond about some of the specifics in the operation category, but we would like to note that everyone in the department is very motivated to support Canadians, our clients overseas and here in Canada. The team here is very passionate, professional and committed.

We undertake training for bias as well as cultural sensitivity. We have recently expedited work on anti-racism and discrimination. We are very committed to our gender-based analysis and accessibility provision.

Mr. Mills, is there anything you'd like to add?

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

You mentioned racism, and I would like to speak about that, too. We've heard testimony throughout the past several weeks about the racism that seems to be built into the culture of IRCC through policies and practices.

For example, the failure rate in the student direct stream from francophone countries like Senegal and Morocco is in the high 80% to 90% compared to English-speaking SDS applicants from Asia, which are much lower. Another example was the discriminatory monetary amounts that Nigerian students have to put up, $30,000, compared to other countries.

What have you done as a senior manager, given that this committee has heard testimony about racial profiling travelling in your department? What have you done as a senior manager to weed out this behaviour? Is there an action plan? Are there timelines?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

That's a very complex, overreaching question and one that we welcome.

We're very proud of the work that we have under way to address discrimination and bias. Systemic racism, as noted, is rooted in history, and it's very complex to look at. We are moving forward with developing a lens—

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

Is there a plan?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

I'm sorry, but the screen is buffering on me.

Madam Chair, can you hear me?

[The Chair, Liberal, Salma Zahid]

Yes, we can hear you.

Time is up, but I will allow Mr. Redekopp to proceed.

Maybe we can go back 30 seconds, if you didn't hear the question.

[Brad Redekopp, Conservative, Saskatoon West, SK]

I'm specifically asking about the plan. What is the plan?

I understand that it's there. What's the plan to get rid of it?

[Marian Campbell Jarvis]

The plan is multipronged, Madam Chair.

We are looking at policy, at service, at our staffing. We are developing an equity lens to assess our programs and policies. We are pursuing—